Volume 39, Nr. 1a, February 2009 Richardton, ND 58652
Dear Friends,
We are in the midst of Obama fever, an economic depression, and a very harsh winter, events that define our lives these days. Throughout it we are hearing calls for change. What change will we experience? What change will we be willing to make? How will change improve our lives? These are questions with no easy answers.
The American Benedictine Academy Board had its winter meeting at the monastery of the Perpetual Adoration Benedictines in Tucson, AZ, the second weekend of January. The weather was lovely and the sisters most hospitable. The board set some goals for the next two years which are as follows:
Strategies identified to accomplish these goals included a recommendation to bring to you, in 2010, a recommended constitutional change that would eliminate the position of past president on the board and establish a new at-large position reserved for an oblate.
The board will work on a new updated brochure describing the organization that can be used to introduce the ABA to various constituencies. In addition, the board will look for ways to honor a more diverse selection of its membership in order to keep everyone aware of the work being done. We have gotten a bit inconsistent with the use of logos and quotes from the constitution in our materials so the board will review them for consistency.
We are looking forward to the convention at St. Benedict's Abbey in Atchison in 2010 and hope you are as well.
Jacquelyn Ernster, OSB
ABA President
The Board of Directors of the American Benedictine Academy held their annual meeting on January 9 at the Benedictine Monastery of Perpetual Adoration in Tucson. Those attending were ABA president Jacquelyn Ernster, OSB, executive secretary Adel Sautner, OSB, and board members Laura Swan, OSB, Theresa Schumacher, OSB, Ephrem Hollermann, OSB, Mary Kay Panowicz, OSB, and Aaron Raverty, OSB.
There were reports on finances, membership and activities, as well as an evaluation of the 2008 convention. Another aspect of the convention reporting was a summary and evaluation of the special interest groups (visual artists, monastic researchers and archivists).
Several matters related to membership were explored and actions will be taken to enhance future participation, including addressing the needs and interests of oblates, encouraging young/new monastics, and fostering cultural diversity. These factors were considered in the board's discussion of a vision for the future of the ABA. While planning continued for the convention to be held in Atchison on August 5-8, 2010, the board was already considering the site and themes for Convention 2012.
Adel Sautner, OSB
ABA Executive Secretary
Have you ever wondered how the abbot primate fits into the true authority structure of Benedictine monasteries?
It might be said that the abbot primate is the superior extraordinaire among Benedictine leaders. Yet, he is not truly "superior" in the sense of having actual jurisdiction over other monastic leaders and their monasteries, except in certain very limited circumstances. Rather, his position is one which serves to encourage unity and support among Benedictine monasteries around the world.
One abbey's website describes the abbot primate's role in this way: "Although the Abbot Primate's power is limited and his post is partly symbolic, he does serve as the primary communication link between the abbeys and the Holy See" <www.stlouisabbey.org/history/order.php>.
Of course, "abbot primate" is not an office foreseen by the Rule of St. Benedict. The Rule speaks of the abbot and those whom the abbot appoints to assist him. There is no "super-abbot" provided. However, in the late nineteenth century, Pope Leo XIII established the office of abbot primate along with the Benedictine Confederation. Perhaps the hope was to bring about more centralization to the Benedictine Order which is famously decentralized, with each independent monastery autonomous and each abbot/abbess/prioress the canonical "supreme moderator" (see canon 622). It does not appear that centralization was accomplished, but the office, and the nine men who have served in that role, have certainly served well our common Benedictine heritage.
Robert Mickens, in an article in The Tablet, a Catholic British periodical, described the abbot primate and his role as follows:
"The primate's role is to oversee the administration of the monastic residence and university at Sant'Anselmo, which he delegates to a prior, and to try to bring Benedictine abbeys around the world into closer contact with one another.... The other part of his job [apart from the university] is promoting unity and collaboration among the monasteries in the Confederation" (October 4, 2008, The Tablet, pp. 10-11).
Mickens quoted Abbot Notker Wolf, the recently reelected abbot primate, as saying, "I want to continue to favor the internal fervor of these communities and to take care of precarious communities."
The abbot primate is the leader of the Benedictine Confederation, which is comprised of the congregations of monasteries of Benedictine monks. A Benedictine monastery of women, if incorporated into or united with a congregation or monastery of monks that belongs to the Confederation, is associated through this congregation or monastery with the Confederation. The abbot primate may also associate other monasteries to the Confederation, whether of women or of men, by decree (see No. 14.b, Lex Propria of the Benedictine Confederation, 2003. The Lex Propria can be found at <www.osb.org/intl/confed/lexprop.doc>.
"The Abbot Primate legitimately represents the whole Benedictine Confederation at the Holy See and, when necessary, to other religious and civil bodies and persons in matters concerning the whole Confederation, without infringing on the rights of Procurators of Congregations" (Lex Propria No. 40). The abbot primate also has the right to conduct a visitation of a congregation or monastery of the Confederation according to the conditions provided in the Lex Propria. In addition, disagreeing Congregation presidents who cannot peacefully settle their disagreement, "before resorting to legal proceedings shall have recourse to the abbot primate" (Lex Propria No. 47).
The abbot primate is the ruling abbot of Sant'Anselmo, which is his residence. While there are technically no monks with a vow of stability to Sant'Anselmo, there are monks who work, study and reside there. The abbot primate, within limits, "enjoys in the area of monastic discipline the same rights and duties in respect of monks resident in the College as their own abbots" (Lex Propria No. 62).
Interestingly, "primate" is described in canon 438 under the chapter entitled "Metropolitans." "The title of ... primate entails no power of governance in the Latin Church apart from a prerogative of honor unless in some matters the contrary is clear from apostolic privilege or approved custom." In canon 620 on major superiors, we see again that the abbot primate does not have the jurisdiction which major superiors have: "Comparable to [major superiors] are an abbot primate and a superior of a monastic congregation, who nonetheless do not have all the power which universal law grants to major superiors." You might wonder, then, by whom an abbot primate is judged. According to canon 1405, §3, judgment of the abbot primate, among others, is reserved to the Roman Rota. The Roman Rota is sometimes described as the "supreme court" of the Roman Catholic Church (see canon 1443).
In 1968, then Abbot Primate Rembert Weakland, pursuant to a vote of the Synod of Abbots President, formed a commission for nuns and sisters, divided into two sections, one for nuns and one for sisters. In 1988, under then Abbot Primate Victor Dammertz, the two commissions merged. Since that time international symposia have been held with Benedictine women participants from all over the world. Most recently, supported by current Abbot Primate Notker Wolf, the Communio Internationalis Benedictinarum (also known as CIB) was formed, which promotes mutual support and exchange of ideas and experience among Benedictine women on an international level and fosters the development of women's monasticism. In CIB's statutes, the abbot primate's role is described as follows: "The Abbot Primate is a symbol of the unity of the Benedictine Order, and therefore fosters collaboration between the communities of the CIB and the communities of monks of the Confederation, and he promotes unity between the CIB and the Confederation." These statutes can be found at <www.benedictines-cib.com/html/statutes.html>
Readers are invited to email me with questions or suggested topics for future canon law columns.
Lynn KcKenzie, OSB
Sacred Heart Monastery, Cullman, AL
slm@knight-griffith.com
"When we speak about the path, we should keep in mind that there is only one path, and everyone who is going is on that one path. It may look as if people were going in different directions; but as long as they are going, they are just on the path." (David Steindl-Rast, OSB)
St. Mary Monastery was a sight for curious onlookers over Labor Day weekend, when the grounds filled with smooth-headed Buddhist nuns wearing flowing robes, broad smiles and simple sandals. Responding to the call for deeper religious understanding across cultures, they had come to participate in "Nuns in the West," a project sponsored by the Monastic Interreligious Dialogue (MID), an organization of Benedictine and Trappist monks and nuns committed to fostering interreligious and inter-monastic dialogue at the level of spiritual practice and experience between North American Catholic monastic women and men and contemplative practitioners of diverse religious traditions.
They had come to share their practices, and to learn more about those of the Benedictines, who also had come from all around the country. What they discovered-the Benedictines and the Buddhists-was that their practices, while arising from profoundly different origins, are surprisingly similar. Sister Anne McCarthy, OSB (Benedictine Sisters of Erie, PA) and Rev. Vivian Gruenenfelder (Soto Zen Buddhist of Shasta Abbey, Mount Shasta, CA) agreed to answer some questions about their beliefs and practices for Connecting Point, a publication of the Benedictine Sisters of St. Mary Monastery.
Can you describe your prayer practices?
Rev. Vivian: Actually, Buddhists don't pray. Prayer implies a duality where there's a self and an other. We don't think in terms of an "other." Buddhism begins with unity and oneness with Buddhist Nature. There's no one to pray to or supplicate or express gratitude or contrition to. We see everything as sacred, and experience that truth in meditation. We understand we are completely united with all things.
S. Anne: That reminds me of Benedict's 12th Step of Humility, bowing in reverence not just in the chapel but in the field or wherever you are.
Rev. Vivian: Yes! And how about his instruction to care for all tools as if they were vessels of the altar?
S. Anne: Mindfulness is very important in monasticism, and monasticism is important to opening us to wisdom. Is the world different because monasticism exists? My great hope is yes; that our emphasis on love and healing helps reduce suffering. Are we, as monastics, bringing more healing and love into the world?
Rev. Vivian: Someone has to hold everything in the world sacred, and that depends more on practice than on doctrine.
What is your daily life like?
Rev. Vivian: It can vary a lot, but it goes something like this: 5:30-6:30 a.m. meditation, 6:30-7:30 chant, 7:30-8:15 a short work period, and 8:15 breakfast. We work until our midday meal, followed by an hour of rest, and work until 4 p.m. We have a short meditation and chant then, followed by a light supper, rest and spiritual reading. We meditate and chant before bed, which is at 9 p.m. We recite the core Sutras-Buddha's teachings-together every day.
S. Anne: That reminds me of the Benedictine recitation of the Psalms during our Liturgy of the Hours. (Although all Benedictine monasteries adopt their own schedules, most pray lauds in the morning, noon day prayer before lunch, and vespers in the evening, along with Eucharist.) We follow Jesus' instruction to "pray always" by chanting the Psalms and by doing
lectio divina, or spiritual reading. It's not just intellectual reading, but a deeper way of reading that allows us to become the Scriptures.
Rev. Vivian: We seek to be "mindful always" with our meditation and readings. Also, work is integral to our meditation process. We consider ourselves a contemplative order, but spend a lot of time working.
In what ways do you believe your orders to be profoundly different?
Rev. Vivian: One visible difference is that, since Vatican II, the Benedictines no longer wear robes, while we have gone back to our roots and now wear robes. The Buddha instructed us to dress differently from the laity, to make us visible in the world as monks.
S. Anne: Even there we are alike, it seems to me. Catholic monastics were urged to return to their roots after Vatican II. We stopped wearing habits because we were to dress like the simple people of our day, as Benedict urged in his time. The habit came from medieval times.
Rev. Vivian: As monastics, we are profoundly similar. Our doctrine is profoundly different, however. We don't pray to the Buddha. He's a teacher and we follow his teachings-although Jesus was, too.
S. Anne: Our individual relationships with Jesus certainly are different. We pray to him, pray to God.
If you don't believe in God, how do you explain creation?
Rev. Vivian: It's a good question, but we don't try to answer it. We're here, so we want to make the best of it. We have no creation story, no end story. We work to bring an end to suffering and to experience our union with all that is, and we hold that sacred.
(Reproduced with permission from Connecting Points, a publication of the Benedictine Sisters of St. Mary Monastery, Rock Island, IL, November 2008.
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